Mexico Tijuana Mission

Month: March 2016

WELLLLLL this week was pretty great!!! We baptized three people, and I also had the opportunity to do interchanges with a pair of Elders in our Zone where I was ale to do three more baptism interviews and pump them up to be baptized as well. It was a great week on the baptism side of things!

Our new three converts are Fa**, Ke***, and Ra****. I want to comment a little about the three of them. They are all SO SPECIAL!!! I love them so much. I really love Mexican people. Who knows why but a family from Utah was in our ward on Sunday and I felt weird talking to them. I just wanted to be with my good Mexican buddies and talk about the cholos and eat some tacos….. Hahaha.

But first would be Fa*** and Ke***. Fa*** is 17 and Ke*** is 10! They are soooo cool. We found them about a month ago and they were so chosen. From the start they were so excited to be baptized and LOVE the church so much. They had a ton of friends at the baptism service and on Sunday and signed up for EFY and they are really excited to see conference for the first time this Sunday. Their mom is also really cool and wants to be baptized but she works on Sundays so she has only been to church three times and can’t go ever Sunday, but she has plans to be baptized here pretty quick as well.

Ra***!!! his story is pretty amazing. The companionship before me found him about a week before we got to the sector. He actually contacted the missionaries and invited them over to his house, but was super, super drunk, so they didn’t go back, and thought he was just being sarcastic about his interest in the church. In the lesson my companion told him to stop drinking. About a month later they were on the street and some guy comes running after them….and it was Ra***! He was mad because they never came, and told them since the day that he had met with the missionaries, he had not drank a drop of alcohol and he said he wanted to be a Mormon!!! hahahah so we’ve been teaching him the lessons. He was baptized on Saturday! I had the opportunity to baptize him, and when he came out of the water and the witnesses of the baptism closed the doors, he told me… “they did it, I can’t believe they did it. They made me a Mormon.” hahaha it made me laugh. But he’s doing great and super excited for this Sunday as well.

As Lehi says, there is an opposition in all things. We baptized three but for us it was a hard week. We knocked over 100 doors but only found 5 or 6 people new people to teach. We still taught a ton of lessons but felt like our level dropped a little bit. We are going to hit it even harder this week. Honestly, we have been setting a really high level for our Zone. We have been really trying to set a good example and we have seen that the whole Zone is getting a ton better!

Mexico doesn’t celebrate Easter. We didn’t do anything. Like no even said anything. The Catholics do some weird rituals and like crucify themselves and some other stuff but other than that no one really did anything. The people here did have vacation but they really don’t get days off. It’s a hard life here. Super super hard. Like vacation is like you get a long weekend to sleep.

I’m really enjoying this Ward. I really like the members a lot and my companion is great! We’re having a great time together. One day we were knocking doors, and we both were so tired. We were in the streets like all day and to not get discouraged every time we had a good lesson we would go get some cookies and a Gatorade. HAHAH it worked though, we kept our spirits high and worked our tails off.

HOPE YOU ALL HAD AN AWESOME EASTER! I’m going to be praying every day to have some powerful revelation on Saturday and Sunday and hopefully you guys will too! General conference is like the best thing in the world. So stoked.

I’m loving everything about the mission right now. Honestly, we work our tails off. We had another 40 lessons this week, and me and my comp didn’t work TWO days because we had meetings. We are going to baptize three great investigators this week. The Zone is doing well, but we have lots of areas to do better.

Thank you so much! YOUR THE BEST!!! I’m really a totally different dude. I can’t wait to bring you back here one day and show you all the spots where I really came to know the Savior as well as become a different person.

I think it just seems that way though because I’ve had so many days doing the same thing it just seems like a blur. It’s so great being out here. I really do feel the spirit testifying through me and my companion everyday. It has been a fantastic two weeks here in Tijuana.

This week I had the opportunity to baptize an amazing young investigator of the Sister missionaries. He is 17 and has a cool story of how he found the church. Every morning before school he would go over and walk the Temple grounds, because honestly the Temple grounds of the TJ temple are AMAZING, but he would go there and loved and felt the spirit. He wanted to join the church and so the Sister missionaries taught him. This past week he was getting ready for his baptism, so we went and interviewed him. During the interview I guess I made him laugh or an impression as after the interview he said he wanted the “curly headed American” to baptize him….so there ya go! Blessed-

We also had our Zone meeting this week which was pretty fun. Me and my companion both have a little more that a year in the mission so we are both stoked and super hyped with the missionaries to pump them up and get them psyched to work. It’s been sweet to be able to serve the missionaries, I love it.

We ate so many tacos yesterday we went to the house afterward and just threw up…!

We have some sweet investigators here. We had a lesson with one man this morning and afterward he made us carrot and orange juice and then he shined our shoes. It was an amazing experience. He told us he wants to be Mormon. He drinks a lot so we are working with him. We have to wait till he drops the licor….

I use my Area Book as a pillow every night because honestly, we have had so much work I’m too tired to grab my normal pillow. So tired, but loving everything. Me and Elder Carreto are working our tails off. Like honestly, we knock so many doors every week it is crazy. Everyone is listening to us too and we are having a lot of success. HOPEFULLY we will see some baptisms here pretty soon.

I’m sorry about last week, I had no time to write. But man what a great week!!! I’m back in Tijuana again and in the best stake in the whole mission, HAH! Man I am so stoked!!

My new companion Is ELDER CARRETO!!!! We actually came out together and have the same time in the mission. He remembers when I came out here and didn’t know Spanish!! Hahaha we laughed about that this week a few times. He is a hard worker. His Dad actually died three weeks ago so he has been dealing with that…He is a stud though and such a great Elder. He is from Puebla Mexico, doesn’t speak English, works his butt off, and is a hugger!! We hug it out everyday after a long day of work. We are having fun.

My new area is RIGHT BY THE TEMPLE!!!! It’s actually in the Zone!! Our Zone is so great, as I told you the most baptizing Zone in the mission, and now with the Temple, we are super blessed. I live like 20 minutes in bus from the temple. We went this week to the Temple actually to have a meeting, and we also had a lesson there with some investigators of some sisters missionaries in our Zone as well.

Our sector is really great, we are going to have a lot of success here. We have found so many great people this week. I would love to talk about all of our investigators but honestly we have like a billion!! We found 13 new people to teach this week. We taught 34 lessons, and that’s with one day of the week we didn’t even work because we had meetings all day. We are honestly working so hard. The weeks flllyyyy by. I honestly don’t even know how much time I have in the mission, I always say like one year but I think I have a few more months than that. Its been fantastic!!

The Zone is doing great. Its so awesome being a Zone leader. I feel unprepared, not ready, and insufficient for the job when they gave me the assignment. I just felt there were other Elders that could do it better, buttttt I’m stoked for the opportunity to serve in a different way. Me and my companion go to the offices every week and we carry back about 50 pounds worth of BOMS. It takes us about 2 hours through the crazy TJ streets, hahah pretty cool!! I’m loving everything here though. Honestly I feel like Tijuana is my home. I feel at home here. Just like my backyard.

Its good to be back!

I miss you guys tons! Sorry about the pics. Honestly we live in a pretty crazy place and don’t take the camera out much, but when I get some more pics I will send them asap.

HEY I GOT SOME NEWS!!! I got transferred back to Tijuana and am now serving in the Insurgentes, Los Olivos Ward as the Zone Leader!! The Zone is the highest baptizing in all of Baja California. My head is spinning right now as I was just called as District Leader last month and now, one transfer later a Zone Leader! I’m super confident and know I’m going to work hard and keep motivating!

Hope you guys are loving it in Mexico. Super stoked but have no time because I’ve been getting moved in all day. Hope you guys have an awesome time. SEND ME LOTS OF PICS!